Instagram has over 800 million monthly active users despite its relatively new existence as a platform. The photo-sharing website’s rapid growth is simply incredible and it looks like it will only continue. If you want to market your Instagram business or blog on the platform, you can use these free Instagram tracking tools to see how your content performs.
There are many Instagram tracking tools that can help you track growth, engagement, ROI and conversions. This page will walk through the Free Instagram tracking tools that I’ve tried and found to be effective.
Instagram marketing is quickly becoming a vital part of every digital marketer’s toolkit. But it can be tricky to track the impact that your Instagram marketing efforts are having. We’ll show you some free Instagram tracking tools you can use to track your progress.
What are Instagram analytics tools?
An Instagram profile holds lots of metrics. These metrics can tell you how effective your promotion strategy or marketing campaign is. Analytics tools help track these metrics. Normally, there’s a number of decisions analytics tools help you make:
- what to post;
- when to post;
- who to advertise with;
- which brands to promote;
- where you can buy ads at the best price.
Analytics tools are handy both for experienced Instagrammers and newbies. And while you can absolutely do without them, they save you a great deal of time and effort.
TOP 10 Instagram analytic tools
1. trendHERO
trendHERO is a service entirely dedicated to Instagram analytics. It shows that Instagram metrics are more than just a few numbers. Thanks to trendHERO, you can analyze your profile statistics in so much detail no important changes can go under your radar.
trendHERO is a paid service but you can use it for free during a 14-day trial. Besides, you can analyze an Instagram profile with up to 10k followers free of charge. This lets you get a pretty good idea of what the service is about and make an informed decision when your free trial ends.
Available analytics
A complete free Instagram profile analysis includes such information as:
- Account quality score.
- Engagement rate.
- Audience analytics:
- reachability, authenticity, average likes;
- location (country/city);
- gender;
- type;
- interests.
- Follower growth.
- Post frequency and distribution of likes.
- Comments analytics.
- Top mentions.
2. Instagram Insights
This is Instagram’s own analytics tool that allows you to track your metrics without leaving the platform or resorting to manual calculations. The feature is available free of charge for those who switched to a Professional account.
Available analytics
Instagram tracks the following metrics:
- General profile statistics:
- impressions;
- reach;
- views;
- clicks on the link in bio.
- Content you shared:
- impressions;
- reach;
- engagement;
- likes;
- comments;
- saves.
- Audience statistics:
- gender;
- age;
- engagement.
The information offered by Instagram Insights is pretty basic. More often than not it’s insufficient for in-depth reporting. For example, it doesn’t let you see your profile growth dynamics. That’s why it often makes sense to use a third-party analytics tool.
3. Iconosquare
Iconosquare is an extremely useful tool that offers management and scheduling features. It works for both small and large businesses, as well as agencies. And of course, it also offers a powerful Instagram analytics tool.
Available analytics
- Instagram profile analysis:
- follower growth;
- engagement rate per post;
- reach;
- impressions;
- regular vs promotions comparison;
- content categorization.
- Stories analytics:
- reach;
- impressions;
- completion rate;
- Best times to post.
- Engagement insights.
Iconosquare offers a two-week free trial so you can try all the features and decide if it works for you. Apart from that, there is a number of free features to use, such as Instagram Audit.
4. Keyhole
Keyhole is a comprehensive solution for businesses that want to get ahead in terms of social media and influencer marketing. The service offers in-depth analytics tools for influencer, competitor, and hashtag analysis. The service offers a 7-day free trial.
Available analytics:
- Influencer analytics:
- influencer discovery;
- profile vetting and comparison;
- ROI tracking;
- profile insights.
- Profile and competitor analysis:
- account metric measurement;
- optimization recommendations;
- comparative analysis;
- audience demographics.
- Hashtag analytics:
- hashtag reports;
- tracking.
5. HypeAuditor
HypeAuditor is a powerful influencer marketing platform that offers about every solution you might need as a brand. There’s a vast database of a few million Instagram profiles, marketing campaign management tools, and of course detailed analytics. There’s no free trial but the service actually offers a free plan with no time limit (although the number of available features is limited).
Available analytics
- Audience analytics:
- audience quality;
- type;
- demographics;
- fraud detection;
- engagement analysis.
6. Phlanx
Phlanx is a social media marketing solution for businesses. It offers a creator database, a campaign management tool, and some very useful analytics tools. One such tool is the Instagram engagement calculator. It’s completely free and allows checking any IG profile to discover their engagement rate and average interactions per post. Apart from that, Phlanx offers a 30-day free trial plan which seems quite generous.
Available analytics
- Influencer auditor (a detailed Instagram profile report).
- Instagram engagement calculator:
- follower count;
- ER;
- average interactions per post.
- Competitor tracker:
- engagement rate comparison.
7. Falcon
Falcon offers way more than just analytics. It’s a big platform that provides marketers with multiple solutions, from social media management to content planning. Like so many similar platforms, the service isn’t free of charge but you can sign up for a two-week free trial to sample all the great features.
Available analytics
When it comes to metric analytics, Falcon offers a great deal of information. There are dozens of post metrics and
hundreds of extra profile stats.
- Instagram profile analytics:
- impressions;
- reach;
- engagement;
- audience demographics;
- video views.
- Channel and post level metrics.
- Team performance tracking.
8. Sprout Social
Sprout Social offers a large number of social media marketing services to businesses of all sizes and agencies. Everything that’s about social media listening, content management, engagement, and of course analytics is here at your fingertips. The service deals with all the biggest social media platforms including Instagram. For those who want to grow their presence on the platform, Sprout social offers scheduling, hashtag tracking, and reporting tools.
Available analytics
You can use the service to get reports on the most important metrics of separate Instagram profiles and entire teams:
- Story statistics;
- post statistics;
- follower growth;
- hashtag tracking;
- competitor tracking;
- engagement tracking;
- top posts.
Sprout Social is a paid service but unlike many other similar services, it offers a rather generous 30-day free trial.
9. Squarelovin
Squarelovin is another analytics tool entirely dedicated to Instagram. However, unlike lots of other analytics tools, you can use it for free. There’s a basic subscription plan that doesn’t require any payment but offers a limited number of features free of charge. Apart from that, there is a Premium analytics free trial plan available for 14 days.
Available analytics
- Profile insights:
- full audience demographics.
- Engagement insights:
- follower activity;
- engagement rate;
- hashtag tracking;
- impressions;
- reach.
- Stories analytics.
- Best times to post analytics.
10. Pixlee
Pixlee is a platform that offers solutions for e-commerce and social media marketing. Thanks to Pixlee, you can manage your content strategies and find the right influencers to promote your brand. Of course, Instagram analytics take an important part in this process. And the good news Pixlee lets you analyze your Instagram profile performance for free.
Available analytics
Pixlee lets you track the key Instagram metrics daily and for a certain period of time:
- Follower count.
- Number of publications.
- Engagements and engagement rate.
- Impressions.
- Number of clicks on the link in bio.
- Reach.
11. Crowdfire
Crowdfire is a social media marketing tool that helps brands and creators boost their social media growth. The service works with multiple social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. One of the best things about it is that you can use it for free. Crowdfire’s free subscription plan gives you access to a limited number of analytics features. For example, you can only view statistics for a previous day.
Available analytics
- Social analytics:
- audience demographics;
- engagement;
- Instagram profile insights.
- Advanced analytics:
- detailed insights per post;
- Report customization.
- Post analytics.
- Competitor analysis.
12. Union Metrics
Union Metrics is a multi-channel platform for social media analytics. The service works with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and offers in-depth analytics data on about every aspect of your social media presence. The great thing about it is that it offers free analytics tools designed for marketers.
Available analytics
- Profile analysis.
- audience demographics & analysis;
- total number of posts;
- best times to post;
- top posts.
- Hashtag tracking.
- Marketing campaign performance analysis.
- Competitor analysis.
13. SocialBook
SocialBook offers powerful software to analyze your social media presence, including that on Instagram. It also has a decent influencer database to help businesses and marketers spread the word about their brands and products. SocialBook isn’t free and it doesn’t even offer a free trial but you can view limited analytics on a basic plan.
Available Analytics
- Influencer profile analysis.
- engagements (total and per post);
- top posts (all-time top posts, best-performing posts in last three months, top sponsored posts);
- brand mentions;
- audience demographics;
- top tags;
- follower growth.
- Influencer research.
- Performance reporting.
- Competitor tracking.
How to choose the most suitable Instagram analytics tool
Despite a large number of Instagram analytics tools out there choosing the most suitable one might be tricky. The platform changes all the time and the focus shifts from certain metrics to others. This is why it’s likely that to have a full understanding of your Instagram profile performance, you’ll need to use more than one tool. Choose the set of tools that suit your goals best. Here are some factors you might want to take into account while you’re at it:
1. Price.
Unfortunately (or not), price is always one of the difference makers. Let’s face it; you’ll be hard-pressed to find an online tool that’s completely free. Many of them offer free trials, some let you sign up for free to use a (very) limited set of features. And that’s ok; competent analytics are worth paying for. The main thing is to make sure that the price of the tool you choose is appropriate to the set of features you are getting. Are they exactly what you want? Do they help you achieve your goals? If yes, it’s definitely worth it.
2. Features.
Some are interested in comprehensive profile analytics, others want to know about their promoted post performance, and still others are more focused on Stories and videos analytics. Before making your choice, you should make sure that your analytics tool will give you exactly what you need.
3. User-friendliness.
No one wants to spend hours just to figure out how this or that tool works. A good analytics service must be intuitive, easy to use, and easy on the eyes. It would be great if there’s an option to export your analytics data to your device.
Conclusion
The key to success on Instagram might seem quite simple. You just have to learn what your followers need and cater it to them on a regular basis. But while it sounds easy, it’s much more challenging in reality.
Analytics tools are what helps you make it easier and faster. They’ll give you a hint on how to correct your promotion strategy. They’ll show you how effective your content strategy is. They’ll help you analyze your competitors and choose the best channels for promotion and marketing. Finally, they’ll let you assess the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
This is one of the cheaper tools in the list that offers hashtag analytics, so if you don’t have a huge budget for Instagram, it’s a good one to check out. Command can show you which hashtags deliver the most engagement for your brand, as well as average likes and comments you get from different hashtags.
Ultimately, this is a great tool for figuring out which hashtags drive the highest engagement for your brand. This can give you critical insights into your target audience’s interests. For instance, if you notice #remotework is a hashtag that performs exceptionally well, you might consider using that insight to produce more remote content on your blog or other social channels to attract higher engagement across the board.